Sick of it

I am so sick of society and the media's view of weight loss/health/body image. Every other commercial is for some weight loss program or work out regime or a show about how to be healthy. And the worst part of it is that they try to cover up their ridiculously narrow views under the guise of health or helping people. For example, I just saw a commercial for the Dr. Oz show. Normally, I don't have any real issues with the man or his show. It is meant to help people live healthier lives and avoid some of the common pitfalls out there. Although, I no longer watch shows like that because after awhile, they can make you so paranoid that everything you are doing is killing you in some way. This leads to excessive stress, which, in fact, can actually damage your health significantly. So the whole thing seems counterproductive to me.

Anyway, here is the video so you can see it for yourself and I won't have to explain it all. There is also another video clip with just the "Fat Pants" guy that isn't any better.
Lose the Shape-wear in 2013

Now you may think that I'm over-thinking this whole thing, but it just rubs me the wrong way. First of all, they have a fat guy playing the "Fat Pants" and a fat woman playing the "Shape Wear", which makes sense in that fat people are the ones that typically wear these things and it would look odd (and a bit insulting) to have a skinny person playing that part. But, by doing so, we are equating being fat with an undesirable (namely, the articles of clothing), which then translates into "Being fat is bad". They even emphasis that the guy is fat by having his belly stick out under his shirt, like the shirt couldn't contain him or something. Then Dr Oz comes on and says, "....getting you back into your skinny jeans", which equates skinny with desirable. Skinny jeans are just a cut of jean like Bootcut or Flare or Straight. It was not (as far as I know) meant to mean that if you can wear them, you are skinny. That would be like equating straight cut jeans with your sexuality....ie ridiculous.
The commercial ends with Dr Oz saying, "the Dr is in, fat is out" and the two characters cheering, which means that they are happy that fat is "out". This reinforces that being fat is not a good state to be in and that those who are don't want to be. Now, I will say that being morbidly obese is not a good thing. The people that you see on those TV shows who are 4 or 500lbs definitely need to lose weight. And I hope that they do and do it safely and healthily. But, the character portrayed here are not the same size as those people. And there are people out there who are not much smaller than these characters are who are healthy. I've stated it before on this blog that "fat" and "healthy" are not mutually exclusive terms. What we equate as being "fat" encompasses so many sized people, but our view of what "healthy" is is narrowed down to a tiny window. There are healthy fat people out there, just as there are unhealthy skinny people.

This is just one example of a bigger problem and that is that there is this pervasive belief in our culture that being skinny is healthy, good, and desirable and that being fat is bad, unwanted, and unhealthy. And this just isn't the case. There is so much more to the issue than skinny-good, fat-bad. And trying to hide these beliefs under the guise of helping people is disgusting in my book. How about we all stop worrying about each others looks, weight, and health and focus on our own. If you are fat and want to lose weight, fine. If you are fat and don't want to lost weight, fine. It is your life and your decision. The only time that I have an issue with it is when it involves those who can't choose for themselves, like children. I do believe that every parent has a responsibility to teach their kids good habits and that includes eating habits. But we still can't force people to do that.

The only glimmer of hope that I see out there is Stacy and Clinton on "What Not to Wear", which, on the surface, seems to be contributing to the problem, not the solution. I mean, a show about clothing seems like it would be superficial and make people just feel worse about how they look. But, it's quite the opposite. Numerous times throughout the series, Stacy and Clinton have had to deal with people's insecurities about their bodies and each time, they reinforce that the person is beautiful and that they need to accept their body and simply dress it the best way possible, so that they can feel as great as they look. And on many occasions, they have told people, "Dress the body that you have, not the body you wish you had". It's such a powerful statement. They aren't claiming that being overweight is healthy or not; they are simply helping people accept themselves and their bodies.

And honestly, that is what the media needs to do. They need to encourage self acceptance instead of self loathing and the belief that there is only one way to be.